Tuesday, December 03, 2013

University of Liverpool Occupation - Statement

The following is a statement from the occupiers of the University of Liverpool Irish Studies department:

Students and staff from the University of Liverpool are now ocupying
the Irish Studies Department in support of today’s staff strike action
and as a peaceful protest against fees and the privatisation of higher
education. This is part of a wave of unified direct action and is in
line with recent occupations at various universities across the country,
including at the University of Birmingham, Goldsmiths University,
University of Sheffield, SOAS, Edinburgh University, University of
Exeter, University of Sussex, University of Warwick and University of
Ulster.

The current dispute between the three major unions and the university
administration is part of a wider attack on the provision of free
education which has included the introduction of tuition fees, the
privatisation and outsourcing of university staff via illegitimate
contractual changes (e.g. zero hour contracts) and the ongoing reduction
of staff pay and working conditions (a relative 13% average pay cut
since 2008). The casualisation of the university workforce can only have
detrimental effects on the quality of educational provision and
employment conditions of support staff. These attacks come from a
management whose pay is astronomical with Vice Chancellor of UoL, Howard
Newby, receiving a salary of more than £300k per year along with
another 37 managers receiving no less than £140k per year, ranking the
University of Liverpool 17th in the country for unfair pay.

Simultaneously millions of young people are being stripped of their
access to higher education. The abolition of the Educational Maintenance
Allowance, a threefold rise in tuition fees, replacement of bursaries
with fee waivers and the recent privatisation of some student loans are
just four factors contributing to the widespread commodification of the
education system. The intended result is to alienate students from their
education to the point of transforming it from a universal right to a
consumer product, thus a sub-prime investment in “human capital”. We
reject such a transformation and consider this occupation an important
reassertion of solidarity between students and staff who believe in a
free, equal and accessible education system.

We support the aims of the strikers to close the entire university while strike action is taking place.

Demands

The university recently sent out an email demonising workers for
taking strike action, and accusing the unions of lying without giving
any evidence. We demand that the university retract this statement, and
send out a new email clarifying the situation rather than providing
incorrect and deliberately inflammatory information to students. We wish
the email would include the input of the occupiers.

We call on university management to agree to no reprimands for UCU
workers and students refusing to cross Unison/Unite picket lines
tomorrow out of respect for the democratic rights of workers acting in
solidarity with their colleagues.

We demand that the university management does not victimise or
penalise any student or member of staff for participating in the
occupation or for any other peaceful anti-cuts activism.

This occupation will continue until our demands are met. We would
like to stress that this is a peaceful non-violent action with the
intention of sending a message to the university administration. It is
not our intention to disrupt the educational process, but to reform it.